National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) is a private, nonprofit organization established in 1984 by the United States Congress. In September 2013, the United States House of Representatives, United States Senate, and the President of the United States reauthorized the allocation of $40 million in funding for the organization as part of Missing Children's Assistance Reauthorization Act of 2013.[1] The current chair of the organization is Jon Grosso of Kohl's. NCMEC handles cases of missing minors from infancy to young adults through age 20.[2]
Formation
June 13, 1984
501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation
52-1328557
Countering child abuse and human trafficking
- United States
Jon Grosso
Michelle C. DeLaune
Operations[edit]
Primarily funded by the United States Department of Justice, the NCMEC acts as an information clearinghouse and resource for parents, children, law enforcement agencies, schools, and communities to assist in locating missing children and to raise public awareness about ways to prevent child abduction, and child sexual abuse. John Walsh, Noreen Gosch (mother of Johnny Gosch, who went missing on 1982), and others advocated establishing the center as a result of frustration stemming from a lack of resources and a national coordination between law enforcement and other government agencies.[3]
The Center provides information to help locate children reported missing (by parental abduction, child abduction, or running away from home) and to assist physically and sexually abused children. In this resource capacity, the NCMEC distributes photographs of missing children and accepts tips and information from the public. It also coordinates these activities with numerous state and federal law enforcement agencies.[4][5][6]
The Center not only specializes in locating missing children, but identifying the deceased. There are a number of unidentified decedents in the country, some of which are children, teenagers and young adults. Like missing children, posters are created for the cases and, if possible, show forensic facial reconstructions of the subject that show an estimation of their appearance while alive.[7] The reconstructions that the NCMEC creates have been regarded to be state-of-the-art and have been stated to have been mistaken for photographs.[8]
CyberTipline[edit]
The NCMEC operates the CyberTipline which was established by Congress to process reports of child sexual exploitation (including sexual abuse, online enticement, and contact offenses). The NCMEC reviews these reports and shares them with the appropriate law enforcement agency or Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task force. In addition to the information provided by the reporting party, NCMEC typically adds geolocation information (if appropriate) and cross-references identifying information such as email address, username, or IP address with existing CyberTipline Reports.[38]
Anyone can make a report to the CyberTipline but reporting is required for certain electronic service providers (ESP)[39] who become aware of the presence of child sexual abuse on their systems.[40] While ESPs are not required to actively scan for or try to detect child sexual abuse, many of them do. In 2018, the CyberTipline processed 18.4 million reports.[41]
'Take It Down' tool[edit]
In February 2023, the NCMEC announced its release of the 'Take It Down' tool, a free-to-use service that allows users to anonymously report and remove "nude, partially nude, or sexually explicit images or videos" of underage individuals found on social media, blocking the content from being shared. Adults who appeared in such content when they were under the age of 18 can also use the service. Meta provided the initial funding to create the service, while platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, OnlyFans, Pornhub, and Yubo have integrated the tool into their platforms.[42]
Publications[edit]
In 2007, NCMEC and Duracell produced a children's book title The Great Tomato Adventure: A Story About Smart Safety Choices, along with a series of educational tools for parents and guardians of older children called Teachable Moments Guides. The books were produced and published by Arbor Books, and the foreword was written by Jada Pinkett Smith. Both tools were introduced as an extension of the child safety program that launched in 2006. The book was made available as a free download via the Power of Parents program website.[43]
